Recovery Day 6

Lydia is doing great and we're talking about being discharged!  She's been off the vent for 24 hours now and is keeping her oxygen saturation levels above 94.  She's struggling with the HME a little, but she works harder to breath when she wears it and will get it back with time.  Lydia's heart is doing great and her pain is manageable.  She's tolerating her bolus feeds and we're back to normal amounts and schedule.  

The only thing we're keeping an eye on is her incision site.  Her bandage was removed Saturday night because her trach mask was creating moisture on the bandage.  Then she went on the vent which was rubbing on her chest so they used mepilex to keep it protected.  Now that Lydia feels better she is messing with everything, including her trach mask, tubing and the mepilex.  So, they're dressing it differently and protecting it a little more.  If the sight is irritated it could open and lead to infection.  We don't need or want that!

I guess there is another thing.  The hospital is FULL.  Don't plan on checking in to CMH tonight, you won't be able to get a bed.  We won't be discharged to the floor until there is space on the floor.  If we get to leave this week we'll probably be discharged from the PICU.  Dr. Ortmann is talking about leaving tomorrow, Lisa the nurse practitioner is saying to wait and watch the incision site a couple more days.  Maybe we'll leave Friday or Saturday!

Mom, Dad and Lydia played this afternoon after her home nurse, TJ, visited and played!  By 3:00 Lydia was tuckered out and sound asleep.  Nurse Susan used suction tubing to rig up a zip line for Lydia's toys.  She'd be playing and lose them and get irritated, so this way they are secure and she can't lose them. 

I checked out the library today!  When we were here in June, July and August the Kreamer Family Resource Center was closed for remodeling.  Now it's open and it's beautiful.  They have some great seating and computer arrangements.  Everything is modular and can be moved around the room.  Love the colors!  LegoLand is going to create and interactive space for kids, too!  The collection is basic and small, mainly health and medical resource books for families and popular titles for all ages, kids to adults.  Their weeded items go onto a book cart for families to take books homes.  In the summer teen volunteers take a book cart around to the rooms for kids who can't make it to the library.  Yes, I even met the librarian.